Art and poetry programs at Flagler College

An artist and a poet will be in the spotlight at upcoming Flagler College programs.

International artist Romero Britto will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday Flagler College in the Virginia Room of the Ringhaver Student Center.

The Brazilian-born painter’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in more than 100 countries, including the Salon Nationale des Beaux-Arts exhibition at the Carrousel du Louvre in 2008 and 2010.

He has also created public art installations for the O2 Dome (Berlin), Hyde Park (London), John F. Kennedy Airport (New York), and Cirque du Soleil at Super Bowl XLI.

He serves as a benefactor to more than 250 charitable organizations and several boards such as Best Buddies International and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and was recently named a founding inaugural benefactor of Harvard’s “International Negotiation Program.” Britto was also recently selected to serve as the Ambassador to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The Ringhaver Student Center is at 50 Sevilla St. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Thaxton to speak

As a fourth generation Floridian, Terry Ann Thaxton believes that the natural landscape of the state, from its scrub to its pine flat woods, had a major impact on her life. That impact can be felt in her first collection of poetry, “Getaway Girl.” Here presentation is part of the “Ideas and Images: Visiting Scholars and Artists Program.”

“The poems in ‘Getaway Girl’ explore how the external landscape affected my internal landscape and perception of the world,” said Thaxton who will give a reading of her poetry at Flagler College at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 as part of the college’s “Ideas and Images” series. The presentation will be in the Flagler Room at Flagler College.

Thaxton, who teaches English at the University of Central Florida, said poetry didn’t always come easy. “When I first began writing poetry, I was unable to write but a few poems. I simply could not recount the events of my childhood,” she said. “Still, I was driven to write from my imagined experience.”

Thaxton hopes her presentation will show her poetry as “an expression of often inexplicable emotions, compressed into language, filled with images that give voice to experience.”

“Ideas and Images: Visiting Scholars and Artists Program” will feature an international composition of artists and authors, introducing a fresh and creative component to the greater St. Augustine community.